After border standoff, India, China find common ground at BRICS

HIGHLIGHTS

He said India had also stepped up the fight against black money and corruption, something that tops the agenda for Xi Jinping himself

NEW DELHI: Brushing off the recent two-month discord with China, India displayed robust participation at the BRICS meeting in the Chinese port city of Xiamen on Monday, with PM Narendra Modi saying the group contributes “stability and growth in a world drifting towards uncertainty”.

Making his intervention at the BRICS plenary session, Modi asked BRICS to team up with the International Solar Alliance (ISA), which, he said, “brings together a coalition of 121 countries for mutual gains through enhanced solar energy utilisation. BRICS countries can work closely with ISA to strengthen the solar energy agenda”.

“Our five countries have complementary skills and strengths to promote use of renewable and solar energy. The New Development Bank (NDB, established by the BRICS nations) can also establish an effective link with ISA to support such cooperation. We would wish to see more clean energy funding, particularly in solar energy, from the NDB,” Modi said.

“While trade and economy have been the foundation of our cooperation, our endeavours today touch diverse areas of technology, tradition, culture, agriculture, environment, energy, sports, and ICT. The NDB has started disbursing loans in pursuit of its mandate to mobilise resources for infrastructure and sustainable development in BRICS countries. At the same time, our central banks have taken steps to make the Contingent Reserve Arrangement fully operational,” he observed.

Modi put out three big ideas to take forward BRICS cooperation in future. First, he called for speeding up of the creation of a BRICS credit rating agency, for which an expert group has already been constituted. “I would urge that the roadmap for its creation be finalised at the earliest,” he added.

He said, “Central Banks must further strengthen their capabilities and promote co-operation between the Contingent Reserve Arrangement and the IMF.” Modi said a strong partnership among member-nations on innovation and digital economy could help spur growth, promote transparency, and support the sustainable development goals. He also underlined the need for scaling up cooperation in skill development and exchange of best practices.

“India would be happy to work towards more focused capacity-building engagement between BRICS and African countries in areas of skills, health, infrastructure, manufacturing and connectivity,” the PM said. He also emphasised the need to accelerate cooperation in smart cities, urbanisation and disaster management.

India, he said, was in “mission-mode” to eradicate poverty and ensure health, sanitation, skills, food security, gender equality, energy and education. He said women empowerment programmes were “productivity multipliers” that bring women into the mainstream of nation building.

He said India had also stepped up the fight against black money and corruption, something that tops the agenda for Xi Jinping himself. Four documents, including on economic and trade cooperation, were signed by the BRICS countries on Monday. Modi told a meeting of the BRICS business council, “We will offer full support to your endeavours. And we also count on the BRICS Business Council to take us closer to our common objective of improving business and investment cooperation.”